Eleven seconds is barely enough time to untie and tie both shoes when in a hurry.

That simple amount of time — well, a few hundredths of a second less — could change the life of West Texas A&M junior Tommy Curry over the next three days.

Curry leads the impressive contingent from the revived West Texas A&M track program participating in the three-day NCAA Division II National Track and Field Championships opening Thursday in Pueblo, Colo.

Curry will represent WT in three events: the 100 and 200 meters and joining teammates Xavier Bennett, Tanner Dennis of Tascosa and Jerell Banks in the 400 relay.

However, the 100-meter dash is the passion of the Riverside, Calif., native. And who can blame him? Curry enters the 100-meter sprint ranked No. 1 in Division II with a time of 10.28 seconds.

“The 100 is my favorite for sure,” the muscular Curry said. “I’m trying to get to Oregon and the Olympic Trials.”

West Texas A&M track coach Darren Flowers started up the Buffs program three years ago after the school took a lengthy hiatus from the sport. He will have 12 men and women competing in the D-II nationals, quite an accomplishment for a young program.

“We are excited about this week,” Flowers said. “We have quite a few athletes ranked in the top eight in the nation. Really, our hope is to get the highest team score that we can. But also bring home some All-Americans.

“I honestly thought we would be a year away to get this many people in.

“But it’s really a testament to how hard our student-athletes work and our coaches work on a day-to-day basis. Tommy is certainly one of those hard workers,” Flowers said.

Not that it’s always been that way with Curry.

As a freshman at John W. North High in Riverside, Curry went out for track. His second favorite sport behind football.

“I went to one practice and I thought it was too hard and I can’t do this,” Curry said. “Next time I came out I said to myself I don’t want to start something and not finish it.”

Curry arrived at WT after attending Riverside Community College and sitting out a year to get his grades in order. Not that he was familiar with Texas.

“I didn’t know of Canyon, Texas,” Curry said. “I was trying to get into school and called here, and we just made it happen.”

Working for a year through emails and phone conversations with WT assistant coach Matt Stewart, a sprint specialist, Curry has now found a home at WT.

“I love the people,” Curry said. “It’s very different from Riverside. The people here really care about you.”

Stewart laughs when he hears the story of Curry dropping out of track because it was too hard as a high school freshman.

“That’s nowhere near the truth now,” Stewart said. “First of all, he is a tremendously hard worker. He’s very coachable. You need to only tell him once what he needs to work on and goes right to work correcting it. I like that about him.”

The start to Curry’s race will determine whether he will stand on the medal stand this weekend and drop his time to the Olympic-qualifying mark of 10.18.

“You start off bad and you have pretty much lost the race at this level,” Curry said. “God has blessed me. I don’t want to say I’ll guarantee I’ll get a 10.1, but I’m going to do pretty well.”

Flowers calls the 100-meter race the “premier sprint” event at nationals and knows a gold medal from Curry would gain a large dose of respect for West Texas A&M track.

But more importantly, seeing Curry covering those 10-plus seconds the fastest would be a proud moment for Flowers.

“We have worked on his reaction time,” Flowers said. “He has a great shot to do something at nationals. And look at him? He’s so humble. If you meet Tommy, he would never bring it up how fast he can run. How can you not root for a guy like that?”